Well. I was planning to write down something along the lines of an introduction, but then I spent the next half-hour reading comics and my brain feels like it's melting, so I've decided against it now.
And another half hour later, and I'm still here.
No point in letting this sit any longer. I'm out. Enjoy your weekend, guys. *proceeds to go back to reading comics*
Evening, all! Not much to say tonight, except that I've had a great week (in spite of those moments of raw panic) and I'm very excited for tomorrow so I can start work again! Like... "I'm ready for all the challenges that come my way and I can taste victory" excitement. Confident, but (hopefully) not cocky.
That will probably come back to bite me by Monday, but enthusiasm never hurts anyone. Besides; it might come true!
Ah, but enough of my rambling.
Who wants to see a familiar anxious monster?
Hah. I was looking at some old OverKill sketches and thought it would be fun to draw Phossy again. Revamp his design a little.. but mostly just curious to see how far I've come since I first drew him.
I think it's safe to say I've improved a little since 2018.
Just a bit, mind you.
Man, I missed drawing this stressed nerd! I definitely need to try and do a big art project with him in the near future. That could be a lot of fun. Make it all glowy and sparky...
Heh. Anyway. I've got things to do, so I'll let you go now. See y'all next week! Take care! <3
Hm. Bit of an odd week for me. Wanted to work hard, but after crying for the first two days I decided to slow down and smell some roses instead. Play video games. Write a little. Mostly just explore and absorb art and comics to the point of disassociation.
It was still a really nice week! Just one where I didn't draw much. *shrug*
Hopefully things will improve tomorrow.
But until then, have some UV art I drew yesterday!
Ruby finally taking control of her life and cutting her hair off as an act of rebellion against her mother. Or... just for her emotion and mental health. Or something.
That scene in my head was complicated.
It's very cathartic, in any case...
She actually didn't have the guts to cut it as short as she wanted, and had to get Harland to do the rest. He managed to do a good job, despite having no real hair himself.
Ah. Nothing like getting rid of something that people have been telling you to look after, despite you hating it with a burning passion. Very satisfying. If not also terrifying...
Aight. Back here again... You guys know the drill! Get into position and we'll start this show without any fuss. *blows whistle*
I've been drawing my Joy and Disgust lot. I mean, I kinda have to, because they're the main characters in my new project. But that's completely irrelevant and has nothing to do with anything. How dare you suggest otherwise.
Haha, but anyway! I really find colouring memory orbs to be a lot of fun. Especially Aussie-coloured memories!
I've got a mini-bingo game in my brain about how many colour-combinations I can make with my emotions. It's fun. I'm hoping to find good inspiration to pair everyone up with each other at some point. Should keep me amused for a time.
Also, this is the first time I've 'officially' drawn my Disgust in her upgraded design. She's been taking a lot more pride in her job lately, and I figured it was time to show that off. No longer does she wear shorts and a tank-top! I mean, she does still wear a tank-top... but the beige jacket hides that very well.
I'll be using her old design for the comic though; but that's fine. Character development yet to happen just makes the current version feel that much sweeter. :)
Hi, all! You had a good week? I think mine was good. It's hard to tell between the bursts of anxiety and hyper-fixation burnouts, but y'know. *shrug* Pretty sure it was good.
I have no idea what I'm doing. The novelty and hyper-focus for the new project is helping. But after another week or two it'll get harder, but maybe I'll have a solid outline by that point.. In any case, despite the struggle, I'm having a lot of fun. And I'm excited, despite the nervousness.
If I hadn't been so focused on work, I might've put some effort into my Saturday Picture tonight. But I was, and the only thing I drew that wasn't my comic was some arachnid kids. So...
Yeah. That's all you're getting this week.
Enjoy the fluffy spiders. I'm out!
Hope you're all doing okay, and I wish you a good weekend. :)
Every time I think I'm done with my Inside Out Oc's, they all go "No your not, and here's why" and then I proceed to spent the next few days drawing them.
That's fine. They've helped me out a lot, and if I love the idiots in my brain then I love myself too. Win-win situation.
But I think this time it's going to last a bit longer than a few days...
Why?
Because I have a new comic project dedicated to one of them now.
Well. I suppose self-indulgent fan-comics are a good way to experiment and test your limits. So I'm not that upset about this.
(It's definitely ONE way to spend the next three months of your life, anyway!)
This new comic-project was inspired by... well, me thinking deeply about nothing in particular while on holidays, and then having a light-bulb moment at something that I didn't realize sooner.
Long story short, I found one of my Core Memories. One that I've had since I was 7-8. And now I'm going to use that to... explore (for lack of a better term) how that works in a world that does the opposite.
It's weird being on the other side of the glass and becoming more aware of who you are as a person... Those lil' people inside my head are probably growing very uncomfortable with this development. But the improved work conditions and team-building exercises probably outweigh any real complaints they might have.
If nothing else, it's been fun trying to reverse-engineer my personality and figure out who's doing what at the controls. Very useful if Sadness or Anger want to say something. A bit trickier if it's Disgust or Fear...
Anyway. I doubt I'll do anything else than draw thumbnails and nitpick my script over the next few weeks.. But I'll do my best to draw something for this blog anyway!Can't guaranteed it wont be Inside Out related tho...
OKAY why not make this a 3 for 3? Three detailed pictures in three weeks!
I'm down with that.
I took part in a monthly art challenge which focused on creating good character designs, and how to present them. Might have cut a few corners, but considering how stressed I was about participating at all, it's like... eh. I'll forgive myself for that.
The fact that I saw this through to the end is achievement enough.
Anyway! The idea was to learn how to collect references, consider the nature and roll of our character, and thus put whatever was in our heads onto paper better than just simply saying 1-2-3-go and accepting whatever we came up with first.
Lemme tell you. When I first drew this guy in 2020, I was not satisfied. Like. It wasn't bad. But I knew I could do better, but didn't know how.
Now I do. And I'm much happier with the results.
This steampunk mailman was a concept I made purely for the aesthetic, so I never took it further than "Oh, he accidentally helps kick-start a revolution by delivering letters reliably and quickly."
Admittedly, I still haven't gotten further than that, but I now have a decent design that I can use whenever I do decide to expand on his universe... so it's cool.
You know how I've been complaining about not drawing something to the limit of it's max potential these past few weeks?
Well, you don't have to worry about that now. Because I just spent two days and roughly 6-7 hours on this!
*cue relieved sigh from the audience*
Yeah. I know. I'm happy about this development too.
So very, very happy...
Mm! Oh yeah. That looks good.
Wasn't sure how my shading was going to turn out, but I found a really nice home-made brush (one that I must've made months earlier) that did the trick really nicely! Didn't feel weird or forced, and it made the process that much sweeter to do.
Dunno what I did to deserve that, but I'll take it. :)
Although, I think I've gotten rusty with glowing effects... I mean, it's not bad. But I can definitely do better than that.
But anyway! When all is said and done, I'm pretty happy about this. I'm proud to call it my own.
Some UV content, to end the month of April properly. :)
(Because I feel like posting now instead of tomorrow... Just so I can truly relax.)
(Also it'll look much nicer to me if I see this in the April section of 2021 instead of May. It'll just feel wrong if I don't.)
Man did it feel good drawing this. I draw so many little things now I barely have time for stuff like this anymore. Not like back when I was 15, when I did stuff like this all the time.
On the one hand, that's a good thing. The more things I draw, the faster I can improve and learn. But dang it's so much more satisfying completing a big piece! <3
Seeing Ruby goofing off with her husband makes me happy on the inside. Harland's such a dork, and she wouldn't have him any other way.
*Contented sigh*
Well. It's that time, again. Time where I draw myself in an exaggerated and flattering style, just for the heck of it.
Well actually, not just for the heck of it. I'm doing this was because my green splatoon key-chain broke (I wear it around my neck), so I had to replace it with another colour.
It's teal now. But I also figured I might as well make it official and draw myself with it, because otherwise how else would people know about this very insignificant and subtle change to my appearance?
And, uh... Yeah?
Might've gone an extra mile further than intended?
I've drawn myself a number of times before. But I think this is the first time where I've purposefully added information that - to me at least - is a little private...
Although I suppose it's not big secret that I play video games, or that I have my head in the clouds a lot. And I'm sure by now everyone on here knows I'm Aussie. If the kangaroo protagonists didn't give it away, then my random bursts of national pride would've tipped you off...
And me being part of the furry community? *pfft* Yeah. Never would have guessed that. XD
But, uh... for arguments sake, let's review some old art of my persona, shall we? Just for reference.And because I spent almost half an hour digging up all my old art, and I don't want to do that again next time I want to review my art journey-
********
2021/Feb/16. This one was a special sketch done for one of my baby cousins. Not coloured, but I think it's still an important link in this (now that I'm looking) art chain. So I'm including it.
Me and my twin sister's baptism, 2020/Dec/25. Literally drew it on the day of the event. Quite special to me, even if I was still figuring out how to use my brand new drawing tablet, and had trouble adjusting to the new angle and bright colours (which didn't match up on my laptop screen).
Still. I like it.
The water came out quite nice.
Ah yes. 2019/June/1. The good old days when I outlined my work.
No real comment. But I do like how I drew my name. Very satisfying.
2018/Nov/24.
I remember this was supposed to be part of a bigger project, as a gift to my grandmother for Christmas. I was planning to draw my whole family, but I think I ended up getting so sick with stress I dropped the idea and literally couldn't draw for a whole month or something because of it.
I had no idea what an anxious child I was until much, much later. But it was examples like this that forced me to acknowledge that maybe I wasn't as carefree as I thought I was.
Hooray for self awareness!
But I'm now of the school of thought that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly. Better to have loved and died then to have never loved at all. That kinda jazz.
Makes brushing my hair and teeth a little bit easier... and actually spending time doing the things I want to do, too.
2016/Sep/3. Another artwork I did while I was sick.
Me in my ancient leather recliner, with mum's fuzzy orange blanket, and my comfort rug around my shoulders like a shawl. Back in the days where I depicted myself as a fox, instead of a hyena. Because Animal Jam.
Yeesh, my characters look colourful here. Midnight, why are you wearing a banana jacket? Ruby, pink and red should never be seen! Especially on you! And Sapphire! You're clothes are too saturated! Turn it down, you're giving me a headache girl! Haha, good grief.
2016/Jan/23. I made these two drawings on the same day, but I only shared one of them for some reason.
Odd. But, I'm happy I get to share both of them now. My younger self would probably be having a heart attack for breaking protocol, but I don't care. It's cool.
Imagine what I could do now, with all my skills and experience today.
Food for thought, anyway.
And finally. 2015/July/28. The first official time I drew myself.
I didn't even have that much to work with back then; just a silly Pokemon spinoff game, which I used... probably way too much, now that I think about. And a few notebooks and a good old fashioned pencil, with my dad helping my with the printer whenever I wanted to share something to the internet.
That was it.
Ha. Simple. Yet, I made it work for me.
**********
My personal art journey has taken on quite the magical adventure so far. It changed a lot. I got a little better. I've shed blood, sweat and tears for my hobby. And poured more heart and soul into it than anything else, too.
But I'm far from done.
*Picks up tablet and pencil again*
See you guys next week! Hope you take it easy, unlike me, who just spent almost two hours on this post instead of eating dinner. XD
*waves farewell and starts drawing some more*
Gave myself a treat yesterday and drew my favorite wolfman. Because I deserve to draw my characters every now and then, between all the other things that I'm always doing.
Just... something simple and easy for a change. No bells or whistles.
Just a good boy with his sword.
For a sketch, I suppose it's not bad. But I'm getting anxious about not working on anything big for the past few months, because I'm afraid I'm forgetting all the skills I worked so hard on when I was younger.
All the glitzy backgrounds are easy; but they only work when I do line-art. Otherwise it just looks silly to me. And also something I didn't earn doing.
... Don't miss drawing shadows as much, but shading and sprucing up the flat colours is also something I really don't want to forget.
Meh. I'm probably overreacting. And I guess I haven't been mentally stable enough to commit to drawing something more complicated than a fancy sketch anyway.
All the same. I wouldn't mind spending an entire two days on the same drawing for a change...
Maybe after I've finished my current project.
Maybe.
Ha, wow. Sunset is pretty early now. No longer do I need to prepare my weekly posts a day in advance! (Not like I usually did, but I now no longer have to do that.. soo-)
Hooray for Daylight Savings, AmIright? *wooh!*
Haha, anyway. It's a multiple picture post again, but I'm pretty sure no one will complain if I upload more art.
More Inside Out stuff, too. Because it brings me joy drawing them.
Each of my emotions (except Sadness) wearing my favorite Assassin's Creed jacket. Because I realized I wear it differently depending on my mood, and I thought that was interesting enough to draw about it. So I did.
Joy wears my jacket like a cape, allowing her to keep cool and free without having to physically wear it. I did that a lot whenever we went on holidays to other countries.
I'd pull the hood up or down depending on the weather, too (or for extra support for my shoulders). And playing with the limp sleeves and twirling about was always fun.
Meanwhile, Fear is using it like your supposed to. Nothing too special, but considering I almost never wore it like that, it should speak for itself.
Only in the darkest times did I put my arms through the sleeves, zip the zipper all the way up, clasp in the special little button, and pull the hood up.
... Or when it was actually cold enough to justify it. But I digress.
Disgust's method was also something I did a lot. "Can't be bothered wearing it because it's too hot, and don't want to carry it around until you get back to the car? Simply tie it around your waist and waste no more time on it. Easy." (And oddly fashionable!)
I always had to undo it before I got in the car, but then I could either throw it on the floor or use it as a blanket. So I didn't mind too much.
However... The few times where I was told I had to wear my jumper (for whatever bizarre reason... like if it was snowing), I'd just slip it on and roll up the sleeves as far as they would go, and pointedly ignoring to zip it up. And depending on how cranky I was with the world, I'd maybe pull the hood down so I couldn't see anything except my feet. Hence why Anger's wearing it like that.
Heh. It might be 'officially' Sadness' jacket, but seeing the others wearing in their own ways makes me happy.
And, um... Yeah! I think that's about it.
They might be sketches, but considering how much fun I had drawing them, I think I can justify being lazy again this week.
When it starts getting colder here in Australia, I might go and dig my jacket out and wear it again just for old time's sake. Because we're not going to be doing any worldwide traveling for a while...
I did start wearing jeans sometimes last year... and I'm now comfortable wearing those in public. Maybe I can work on wearing more than one layer unnecessarily? Just for the heck of it?
(Ha. Maybe. Don't mind me. Just thinking aloud. :))
Hope your week turns out good, and you achieve everything you need to do.
See ya! <3
A'ight. New week, new month, new post.
Let's not beat around the bush and get this over with. I have a whole night of relaxation to get too!
My personal version of the Core Emotions from Inside Out.
Been a while since I've drawn these guys. It was nice to revisit them.
It's interesting to see how my mental health has developed since last year. Some things have improved. Some things haven't. And then there are some things which I didn't even know were problems to begin with.
There's always some action happening in my brain.
But these guys do a good job helping me figure it out, though.
Mad props to Fear for growing so much and Joy for being less toxic. And Sadness, for being the team mum and voice of reason. Even with her moments.
March is almost over. Finally.
Not been my favorite month this year, in all honesty. But I wont hold it against it. I still had some good days, and I spent a lot of time with my sisters. And Pokemon. Amongst other things. So it's cool.
My Art Studies are going well I think? I can tell in less then two months my understanding has increased, even if my hand is having trouble keeping up... I'm just worried I'm giving myself too much information all at once, then too little because I'm worried about forgetting anything. But I'm also too excited to stay on one topic for too long? Because there is A LOT OF GROUND to cover, and I want to see it all?
But then I just get scared and don't learn anything new anyway.
*shrug*
Anyway.
Still struggling to make art, but I think the worst days are over. Just have to persist and push through the rest of my frustration, but also make sure I don't burn myself out before I've filled up my tank again.
... I can probably do that? Maybe...
*... doubt*
I made this, in any case.
Ruby and Harland in their early twenties. Slowing making their way through a more romantic relationship.
Ruby isn't convinced this will go anywhere, but Harland is optimistic and doesn't mind taking things slow for her.
At least they're dancing. That makes Harland very happy on the inside. :)
Another slow week for me, I'm afraid.
Drawing takes a lot of mental energy lately... It's getting better now, but I clearly need to play some more pokemon in the evening for another week before I go back to drawing for 5-7 hours a day.
Hopefully I'll only need that much time to complete my Nuzlocke run... so long as no one accidentally dies just before another important match.
But anyway.
Figured if I couldn't share something cool, I could at least share some of the little sketches I've been doing for the past two days.
I like them. I had some good references while I drew them.
They have a nice low-key happy vibe about them.
Good kids, they are.
I like them a lot.
I wish them well in whatever it is they want to do.
A'ight. Second verse same as the first... Not a terrific week, but apparently worse than the last one, because I couldn't even draw anything cool. So I'm pulling a super sketchy concept piece that I did last week, in place of an actual artwork.
It's not... bad? But it didn't turn out the way I envisioned it. Which means I'm biased, so this is probably still okay to literally everyone else.
But I'm hard to please.
Eh.
It's a thing, anyway.
Gotta have some bad to make the good look better.
All in the name of progress.
At least the spacey sky was kinda fun.
I like space.
Hm.
Been one of those weird unproductive weeks for me.
Not a bad week. Just didn't get that much done, for whatever reason.
*shrug* Oh well. It be like that sometimes.
But if the only thing my brain wants me to draw is a small evil nerd with his frog, then I guess a small evil nerd with his frog I will draw.
Who am I, a mere artist, to argue with inspiration on a slow week? :)
Besides. This makes me feel happy on the inside.
That's enough for now.
This week has been an odd mix of activities for me. I got out of the house twice in two days (which is very social for me), watched two movies (also pretty weird for me) and spent a good amount of time doing odd house chores? But not much drawing.
So. On the one hand, it feels like my week has been packed. On the other hand, it feels like I've done next to nothing. No big drawing projects or a pile of fun sketches to show off... Practically nothing.
But if I tick off this week as a 'holiday from serious drawing' I think I can get away with it. *hopeful thumbs up*
But yeah.
Still didn't change the fact that I needed to draw something for my weekly art post.
But thankfully, as I was doing some drawing exercises on Friday, I drew something kinda sweet and thought "Huh. Ruby and Harland would be pretty fitting to draw in that position. But aw man, it's for human proportions..."
"Wait."
"I can still work with that..."
And about an hour or so later I had this on my hands.
My favorite penguin and kangaroo couple! But humanized! <3
I've never ever drawn any of the UV cast as humans before. Which sounds odd, but I guess it's something I'd never considered trying to do?
Mostly because my characters being animals play a huge part in the grand scheme of literally everything. Why it's such a big deal for Ruby to marry someone who's not one of her species; why having hybrid children can be amazing or terrible, depending on the parents or magic blood; why some magical species are going extinct because of inbreeding or mixing too much... etc etc.
But! I still think this is pretty neat. For what it's worth.
Obviously, if I was to draw them like this again, I'd want to fix/improve on some details... but that's not important.
I'm content with what I've created. It was a neat experiment. It brought my joy for a little while. :)
Best odd couple! <3
Hey.
Guess who finally drew something that wasn't pokemon yesterday?
*bright neon sign flashing on and off above head*
It's me.
I was the one who finally drew something that wasn't pokemon.
And even better, it's UV related!
I manage to draw some good boys with some good kids!
Overall, it's a good day in AppleTown. :)
It's times like this where I realize that most people are going to look at these characters (more specifically Harland and Vincent DeathDancer) and go "Oh! Look at these lovely green girls!" while I'm in the background snickering like "Yes, those dudes are indeed very lovely."
What started as a perfectly innocent joke when I was but a wee lass has turned into a perfectly innocent running joke which I love to bits.
I dunno. I just adore seeing guys in dresses and skirts.
Reginald is at least wearing a kilt. Very masculine. No mistaking him for female. (Probably)
Flavio is the only one who you don't immediately second-guess yourself on what gender he is.
Until he starts brainwashing you. Then you start doubting yourself! XD
The background was a bit of a surprise. Wasn't planning on doing that when I started drawing this. But I did.
Didn't turn out too bad, I think.
Anyway it's almost 8pm now so I gotta go.
Hope you guys have a nice weekend! May you end up being less stressed than you started!
*salutes myself out*
Aaaand I'm back with another Pokemon sketch from my Archives! Yay.
I would've made something not pokemon if I could've... Really! I would've. I did try! And it ended with me being sad for a few minutes and then giving up and resuming drawing Team Magma.
I can't tell if I'm digging my own hole deeper every day, or if my hyper-focus ability is always being redirected to something similar but just different enough to keep my imagination chugging along happily so that it FEELS like I'll never draw anything but Pokemon ever again...
???
Who knows.
I'm not gonna let it upset me that much though. I am enjoying having an interest lasting for longer than a week or two. And I think I've gotten better at drawing human faces because of it.
Like... not useful? For UV? But still a skill that I've neglected over the years.
Anyway. Here's what I managed to draw yesterday.
I've never really paid much attention to Cyrus before (mostly because there were so many other Pokemon Villains I had my attention on) but he's been growing on me slowly over the past few weeks.
Giratina was my favorite legendary from Sinnoh, though (I love that good centipede dragon! <3) so when I made the decision to draw this sad nerd... - possessed? I'm gonna say possessed - possessed by Giratina it was a lot of fun.
And it was a whole lot easier than drawing Maxie!Groudon or Archie!Kyogre.
Love Maxie and Archie very much, but out of the three of them Cyrus was the easiest for me to draw.
He just hit all the right sweet spots... None of this wearing weird wetsuits or having three layers of clothing and LEGGINGS, Maxie. *pfft* Dork. :)
